3000 AD
by Torchwood Tea Girl
Summary: In the year 3000, Torchwood still defends Earth. After an experiment revives one of Torchwood's past team members, he must face a long and dangerous journey to restore his memories and be reunited with his Captain. JackxIanto. Post CoE


Hello one and all. After the terrible disaster that occured at the end of last week, Ianto Jones' unfortunate death, I started writing this. Along with many other fanfic writers, I am in denial about the whole thing and in order to set things straight in my mind I've come up with my own unique way of bringing the wonderful Ianto back from the dead. I hope my method is believable and interesting. Each chapter will hopefully be a similar length to this one (ie. a few thousand words) because that's the way I've planned it, but this might just be wishful thinking on my part.

This is set in the future, after the 456 invaded Earth, and will eventually include JackxIanto, but will see Ianto meeting many interesting characters along the way. There may be a guest appearance in later chapters, but I haven't planned that far ahead yet so we'll see. Hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood, but if I did Jack would have found a way to revive Ianto during Day 5.

* * *

3000 AD

Chapter One - And as if by magic...

"How much longer do we have to do this? It's a pointless effort. Nothing is gonna happen."

"Have a little faith for once in your stupidly long life. This has worked in ten other bases and will work now, so be quiet!"

"Ma'am, yes ma'am!"

"Smart ass! Just let the lads do their job and stay out of the way. Ready, Xander?"

"As I'll ever be."

"Rupert?"

"The equipment's all set up."

"Excellent. Boys, let's do this thing!"

???

Time was non-existent. He had no idea how long he'd been in this wretched place, just that this was all he could remember. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else existed. Nothing else was real. This was his whole world now.

He couldn't sleep, couldn't see, and could barely think. The darkness was all consuming, pressing onto his ears, eyes and skin, robbing him of the majority of his senses. The only thing he was aware of was fear. He feared this never ending prison and evil that lurked in the darkness, always just out of reach. It kept coming closer, teasing him, before moving away again. Whatever it was, it was driving him slowly insane with suspense. If it wanted to attack him, destroy whatever was left of him, then why was it waiting? Why couldn't it do what it wanted to so that he could be left alone in peace for the rest of eternity?

Without warning, a spasm of pain vibrated through his body, reminding him exactly what it felt like to be alive again. And he hated it. Tears sprung to his tightly closed eyes as he fell to his knees, clutching his body to stop himself falling apart. It felt as though liquid fire had filled his inside, burning him from the inside out. It was excruciating. Then came his first breath of air in almost a thousand years.

That was one of the better points of death. Things like breathing, eating and sleeping were no longer top priorities. So, when he took that deep, shuddering breath, his weakened lungs nearly burst from the sudden pressure in his chest and set him off on an uncontrollable coughing fit that wracked through his whole body, sapping him of any strength he had left.

When a pair of hands clasped around his shoulders, pulling him out of the cold and the dark, his eyes shot open and he was nearly blinded by the sudden light. It was worse than the darkness. It burnt so badly that even when he squeezed his eyes shut again there was a streak of white scorched across the back of his eyelids.

"Welcome back, darlin'," said a strange voice, sounding like screeching in his ears after years of silence. "Here. Drink this."

He felt something being pressed against his chapped lips before something cold and incredibly soothing filled his mouth and slid down his severely dry throat. It was a shock at first, but quickly relieved the fiery sensation in his chest. After a few minutes, he finally managed one murmured word before collapsing into a deep sleep.

???

"What did he say?"

"I think it was 'Jack'."

???

Ianto Jones awoke hours later and was relieved to discover that he was no longer in that soul destroying world of death. With great care, he slowly opened his eyelids, blinking in the light until his blurred vision finally began to solidify.

"He's awake!"

Suddenly, he was bombarded on all sides by excited faces baring down on him. Each of them was staring at him as if he was something strange and freakish, which was ridiculous as one of the faces clearly wasn't human.

A man in white coat started bustling around, checking monitors and the IV that was connected to Ianto's arm. He poked and prodded Ianto, much to his annoyance, checking his temperature, heart rate and breathing until he was completely satisfied that the previously dead man was well and truly alive.

"He looks good to me," the man finally said to the rest of the group, his small voice barely carrying over the constant beep of the surrounding machines. "Looks like it worked."

"Of course it worked," replied the other man, a pompous expression ruining his rather handsome although oddly pale face. "You had me helping you, that's why. Your previous failed attempts prove this."

There was a snort of repressed laughter and the alien creature vanished from Ianto's line of view.

"Shut up!" the final person, a middle aged woman with a shock of sky blue hair and copper coloured skin, yelled, smacking the smug man across the back of his head before turning her attention back to Ianto. "You alright there, lad? This is probably a bit hard to take in at the moment, but we're gonna take real good care of you."

Ianto pursed his lips, trying to put into words the millions of questions that were swarming around his head. He finally settled on a strained and almost silent, "What?"

"Okay, introductions first. I'm Tamsin Avery, team leader," the blue haired woman said, pulling a metal stool over to the equally metal and very uncomfortable table Ianto was laid on, and settling down on it. "This is Rupert Drake, our excellent doctor."

The man wearing the white coat cast a wary glance at Ianto before returning to the safety of his medical equipment. Clearly the concept of the dead returning to life made him uncomfortable. His long strawberry blonde hair flopped over his face, hiding much of it from view, but Ianto was sure that he'd seen a pair of sparkling, violet eyes flash in his direction.

"Xander Cruz, over here, is our technician," Tamsin gestured to the other man with the attitude problem. "That lass you saw is Zai, the resident alien and translator of alien languages."

Trying to take all this in, Ianto gently eased himself into a sitting position, ignoring the protests from the doctor, and had a good look around.

"Where am I?" he croaked, his throat still very dry.

"This is what we like to call 'The Hub'," Tamsin explained with a frown. "It's where we work. You know. Torchwood and all that."

Ianto shot her a puzzled look.

"You did work for Torchwood, didn't you?" Tamsin asked, grabbing a file from a nearby table. "You're Ianto Jones, born 19th August 1983 in Wales. Worked for Torchwood London until it fell in the Battle of Canary Wharf, and then you worked for Torchwood Cardiff until your date of death. That's right, isn't it?"

"I…urm…I dunno," Ianto admitted. "I can't remember anything."

"Shit! No way!" The alien, Zai, had reappeared and was peering at Ianto with a great deal of interest.

She was certainly a strange looking creature. A row of horns outlined her scaly, red tinged face like a jagged head dress. Her eyes glowed a vibrant yellow out of sunken sockets. Terrifying claws were in the place of her fingers and toes, and a long, thick set tail swung from side to side behind her. She sort of resembled an over grown lizard, but Ianto immediately sensed that such a comparison would not be appreciated.

Her hot breath stung his cheek as she leaned in close to inspect him. A long, forked tongue ran hungrily over her lips, darting out momentarily to taste Ianto's skin making him shiver with revulsion.

"Do you think his memories were erased?" she asked, a slight hiss accompanying her words.

"Seems that way," Rupert said, checking through the various readings that his machines were producing. "All his vitals are normal. So is his brain activity. It could just be a product of being dead for so long."

"I was d-dead?" Ianto stuttered, his eyes widening at the shocking news.

"Wow! You really don't remember anything, do you?" commented Xander, folding his arms over his chest as that smug expression appeared again.

"I remember being in darkness," Ianto offered.

Tamsin held out a hand to Ianto to help him up, accompanied by a smile that she must have thought looked sympathetic, but came off as being quite patronising.

"Don't worry. It'll come back. Maybe this place will help." She swept her other arm in a wide arc, indicating the large base that she had called the 'Hub'. "We're in the Torchwood Cardiff head quarters now. Only the technology has changed over the years. The base itself is essentially the same. Well, as close to the original design as possible. It has been destroyed on numerous occasions."

The group took the stairs up to the Hub's main floor where Ianto was stunned by the sheer size of the place. Computers covered almost every surface with wires and leads littered the floor. He would have mentioned the potential fire hazard in the lack of organisation, but his head was still buzzing. The amount of incredible and unusual devices that filled the base was astounding and so was the indescribable mess. All he wanted to do was examine each and every one of them, and then tidy them all away into their proper place, but for the new found life of him he couldn't understand why.

"Impressed?" Tamsin asked, watching Ianto in bemusement.

"Very."

"Remember anything?"

"Nope. What are all these things?"

"Alien technology," said Zai, wrapping a scaly arm around Ianto's shoulders and jerking him closer to her. "That's what Torchwood does. We're the saviours of planet Earth. Welcome to the year 3000."

???

It didn't take long for Ianto to get used to Torchwood again. He slipped very easily into his old job, looking after the Archives and the rest of the team even if he couldn't remember doing it before. Xander had tried to explain the method they'd used to revive him, but the calculations, formulas and overall process turned out to be a little too complex for Ianto's mind to get around. All Ianto could understand of the whole thing was that he'd been found in the Torchwood morgue and that he'd been given a blood transfusion combined with nanogenes, whatever they were, that had brought him back. Thanking his lucky stars that this had worked, Ianto decided not to question it and just get back to living instead.

A lot of things in the Hub had to be explained to him, not only because of his lack of memories, but also because he was surrounded by new technology that hadn't even been thought of in his time. Luckily, there were moments when vague memories slipped through his otherwise blank mind. He'd be quietly watching Xander demonstrate on one of the many computers how to use the database on alien information and artefacts when, suddenly, he was pushing the man away and typing like a pro. His memories of the Torchwood coffee machine also came back instantly when he caught sight of it, rusty and broken, in the kitchen and it didn't take long for him to have it up and running again with the heavenly smell of coffee filling the Hub.

Ianto's excellent beverages sparked off something that the Torchwood team hadn't done in a very long time. Instead of working constantly on their various projects, they started to get together and chat over a mug of coffee, learning more about each other. Ianto was surprised to discover that, aside from knowing each other's names and reading the personnel files, none of the team really knew that much about the others. Determined to learn as much as he could, Ianto took on the job of initiating conversations about the team's private lives.

In a few weeks, he'd learnt all about Zai's home world of Raar with its twin suns, endless deserts and its underground cities, as well as her personal dislike towards the weaker human race. He listened attentively to Xander's stories of his time at the University of Mars and the many alien races he'd encountered there. He allowed Rupert to confide in him about his passionate feelings towards Xander and his sheer horror of Xander ever finding out, although Ianto secretly thought that Xander harboured similar feelings for Rupert. The only person he still didn't know was Tamsin who tended to avoid such conversations and kept to her office for most of the day, causing a certain amount of suspicion amongst the rest of the team.

"Who knows what she's doing in there?" Zai had said one day when the topic had fallen upon Tamsin. "She could be plotting our deaths, for all we know."

But whenever Ianto ventured up to her office with a fresh cup of coffee, Tamsin was always surrounded by paperwork stamped with the Torchwood 'T'. Therefore, he knew that she was simply too busy with her work to take breaks and chat with the team.

Work, in general, seemed pretty tame at this new version of Torchwood. Gone were the days of chasing Weevils and other dangerous aliens around the streets of Cardiff. Most of the time, the teams work was split between communicating with alien planets, negotiating trades, and welcoming visiting aliens to Earth. Therefore, Ianto tended to keep to the Archives and let the rest of the team do their various jobs. He didn't even get to leave the base. Their sleeping quarters were within the headquarters giving Ianto no reason to leave. However, as Ianto still had no recollection of his life before the blackness of death, he couldn't remember living on the surface of the Earth and didn't really mind spending all of his time in the dank, dark tunnels of Torchwood's underground base. It was his home now. Although, he couldn't help wondering what it was like to breath in fresh air instead of the recycled air he'd become used to.

"It's nothing special," Tamsin told him when he finally decided to ask. "The Earth is so polluted now that the air down here is probably fresher."

She downright refused to let him venture out. He'd been dead after all and as not many people knew about some of Torchwood's more secret experiments there would be mayhem if they knew there was a chance of bringing the dead back to life.

"I wouldn't tell anyone!" reasoned Ianto, getting into a fury during his latest attempt to persuade Tamsin. "No one would know!"

"I can't take that chance!" Tamsin barked back at him, her temper growing. "Anyway, you're the Archivist! Any field experience you may have had in the past is lost along with the rest of your memories! You'd be a dead weight!"

With that, Tamsin stormed off to her office, ignoring the harsh glares that Ianto continued to send her way. Her office door slammed shut with an echoing bang and the Hub fell silent.

Ianto, still seething at the way Tamsin kept belittling him and making a mental note to break out the decaf coffee, was about to head back to the Archives to let his frustration run its course in relative privacy when he heard a stifled chuckle. He turned to see the rest of the team watching him from the safety of the staff kitchen.

"Tough luck," Zai said, holding an empty mug in her clawed hand. "I respect your courage and persistence, kid, but big boss Tamsin ain't never gonna let you leave this place."

"But why not?" asked Ianto as he approached them, straightening his tie that had become rumpled in his outrage. "What has she got against me going up there?"

Zai sighed, her tail curving up to stroke his back in soothing circles, a sign of affection that he was grudgingly getting used to. "It's the same reason she won't let Rupert up either." She glanced over at the quiet doctor who nodded in agreement. "Tell you what. You make us some of that glorious coffee of yours and Xander will tell you everything."

"You know I love it when you include me in these things, but exactly why do I have explain things?" Xander asked as a frown darkened his grey eyes.

"Well, it might have something to do with that robotic brain of yours giving you a tremendous memory," replied Zai.

It was common knowledge, especially since Xander was very fond of retelling the story, that Xander had been badly injured after an unfortunate meeting with an escaped Hoix. He'd lost both of his legs, one of his arms, a whole portion of his chest and a sizable chuck of his head. After major reconstructive surgery, the only chance of saving him involving grafting mechanical parts to what was left of his body. The surgery had been a success, but to this day he remained bitter about the whole thing. He was, however, oddly pleased by the new found strength and enhanced brain power that he'd obtained.

"Fine. Since it is tremendous and all," Xander agreed with a slight smile and a hint of pride in his voice. "But I want a coffee too."

Ianto looked up from the complex coffee machine in amusement. "You're a cyborg. Won't coffee mess up your system?"

"Part cyborg and I just want to smell it!" responded Xander angrily, his pale face reddening from embarrassment.

There was a titter of laughter from Rupert, which surprised everyone including himself, before everyone settled down at their desks with their coffees and waited for Xander to begin.

"Earth isn't exactly the nicest place to live anymore," Xander started, inhaling deeply from his mug. "It all started a few hundred years after you died. Nobody cared about saving the planet and since then the amount of pollution has reached staggering heights especially around the capital cities, for example Cardiff, above us, is covered in thick, black smog. There are a few rare places, far away from urban areas that are still habitable, but those places are for the wealthier humans and the aliens who come to visit. Essentially, the only people who can really survive in the majority atmosphere up there are robots like me or aliens like Zai who can withstand poisonous gases. That's why we never send you or Rupert out on field missions. It's just too dangerous. Tamsin has to wear a protective suit just to stay alive."

"Why couldn't she have just told me this from the beginning?" asked Ianto.

"Because she's too nice," Zai replied as she lapped up her coffee with her long tongue. "You're from the 21st century when everything was lovely and nice. It would be a big shock for you to see the world now. It's really changed. Tamsin was trying to stop that perfect image of the world you might still have from being ruined."

"But I can't even remember what the world was like back then."

"Oh, don't ask us to explain the way Tamsin's mind works," said Xander. "She's always been a bit unhinged; comes with the job really."

Finishing her drink, Zai cast a look of pity up towards Tamsin's office. "All you need to know, Ianto, is that she's not doing this because she's a bitch or anything. She's genuinely trying to take care of you."

As the team wandered back to their various jobs, Ianto considered what he'd been told. He still felt as if he was being unjustly separated from the outside world, but the thought of something going out of their way to look after him caused a warm feeling to spread through his chest. In such a strange new world as the one he'd found himself in, he was happy to take all the friends he could get, even if they expressed their feelings in some rather round about ways. He got to his feet with a small smile gracing his lips and was heading back to the archives, his desire to see the Earth's surface quenched for the time being, when a strange image flashed through his mind.

_He was standing in a spacious, darkened room, disturbed by constant flashing of a vivid red light and the screeching sound of an alarm. It was furnished elegantly with highly polished chairs and tables, perhaps for the purpose of holding meetings. Ahead of him, a glass tank stood completely out of place in the beautifully decorated room. Filled with swirling, deadly looked gas, the tank glowed ethereally, casting wondrous shadows across the wooden floor. Ianto, however, wasn't concerned with any of this. All he felt was unrivalled fear of whatever is was hiding in amongst the depths of the gas._

_A man, standing next to Ianto, turned to him and grabbed his arms in desperation. He looked so scared that all Ianto wanted to do was hold this man close and never let go._

"_We've gotta get you out of here," the man said looking straight into Ianto's eyes. "I can survive anything, but you can't."_

Ianto's heart clenched as those words replayed over and over in his head, and then he was falling.

???

After year upon year of living in a world of shadows, silence and isolation, Ianto had developed a rather understandable fear of the dark that hadn't lessen over time. He refused to mention this to any of his team mates, deciding instead to keep it a secret and try to live with his weakness. It did, however, result in a severe case of insomnia and anytime that he did happen to drift off, his sleep was plagued with nightmares of that hellish place.

So, when Ianto finally woke with a particularly terrible ache across the back of his head in a pitch black room, it was hardly a surprise when he started to panic. His breathing became shallow and very quick while a sheet of cold sweat covered his body. To make matters worse, he was wrapped up tightly in a blanket that, in his terrified state, felt like it was crushing every bone in his body. He tried to call out for help, but his cries stuck to the back of his throat and he ended up gulping and spluttering for air that refused to fill his lungs.

When Zai finally entered the room to check on him, he was deep in the middle of a panic attack; thrashing on the bed as he tried to escape the torturous confines of his bed covers.

"Ianto! Ianto, for God's sake, calm down!" she yelled, flicking on the light switch to dispel the darkness from the room. "What's the matter with you?"

Once Ianto had caught sight of Zai in the luminous glow of the overhanging light bulb, he started to relax a little, but continued his relentless struggle with blanket while whimpering, "Help," over and over in a tiny voice.

"You human's are bloody useless!" she hissed, striding over to untangle Ianto. "Getting all worked up over a blanket. What's wrong with you?"

Free from his constraints, Ianto took a deep breath and took hold of Zai's tail in a startlingly tight grip.

"Oi! Get off!" she screeched, not used to someone touching such a personal part of her anatomy.

She got ready to whip her tail out of the young man's hands, but the expression of terror on his face and the way he was clutching her extra appendage to his chest made her pause. He looked like a child hugging a cherished toy or blanket. It was enough to quell at least some of the annoyance she felt towards him.

"What's with you?" she asked, gently taking back her tail and sitting on the bed so that Ianto could cling to her arm instead. "You don't exactly strike me as the touchy feely type. What's brought this on?"

"Nothing. Bad dream," Ianto mumbled.

"Seemed like a nightmare to have you squirming around like that. What were you dreaming of?"

"Nothing," he repeated, his eyes refusing to meets hers.

"Come off it! That ain't a real answer! Tell me the truth!"

"I am. I was dreaming of nothing. Surrounded by a never ending world of nothing."

Zai blinked and scrunched her face up; her peculiar way of showing sympathy. "Is that what we have to look forward to? When we die?"

Ianto nodded briefly. When a pair of scaly arms wrapped themselves around his waist and pulled him closer into a half hug, he nearly leapt away in shock. Never in his short amount of time at this new Torchwood had he seen Zai touch another person so much, but he did find it relatively easy to snuggle into the side of her chest.

"At least you get a second chance, Assrah," she said in her snake-like voice.

Watching her tongue flick out to pronounce that last word, Ianto asked, "What did you call me?"

Her face suddenly stained blue, her equivalent of a blush, she laughed nervously and replied, "It's a term of endearment on my planet. Like when Tamsin calls you 'darlin'."

"Oh."

"Except…it's a tad more affectionate than that."

She gazed down at Ianto, her face suddenly the colour of the sky at midnight, and leant in to kiss him. Her lips felt smooth on his and soon both the human and the alien were deepening the kiss, relaxing back onto the bed for comfort as Zai's tongue did wonderful things inside Ianto's mouth.

They parted, Ianto smiling ear to ear. "I thought you hated humans with our weak bodies, pointlessly short lives and disgusting habits."

"I can make exceptions," she mumbled, her tongue darting in and out of her mouth at a terrific speed, unconsciously licking Ianto's face and neck. "And I've wanted to do that for some time now."

Chuckling, Ianto allowed Zai to roll dominantly on top of him before they shared their second kiss. This one lasted longer, allowing them time to explore each other's bodies as hands fumbled across skin.

Suddenly, there was a sharp bang that echoed around the small room, stilling their movement immediately. Ianto made to pull away from Zai, a snide remark already forming in his mind about whether or not this was normal for her race, but the taste of copper in his mouth made him freeze. For a moment, he thought it was his, but then Zai jerked back and coughed, spraying his face with blood.

"Wha?" he gasped as she fell limp and lifeless into his arms. "Zai?"

"The target has been eliminated," said a male voice, drawing Ianto's attention towards the doorway.

Standing there were two men with large, and dangerous looking, guns. Both were dressed from head to toe in thick, black clothes to hide their appearances and both were wearing a strip of red material tied around their necks bearing a single broad blade that Ianto assumed was some sort of insignia. The taller of the two strode over to the bed and threw Zai's body over his shoulder.

"What should we do with this one?" the smaller man said, pointing his still smoking gun straight at Ianto's head with a malicious grin.

"Kill him," his partner said, already halfway out of the room. "The bounty is only for the girl. He's worthless."

"Oh, I dunno. He's kinda pretty," the small man commented with a leer that made Ianto cringe in disgust. "Can't we keep him?"

"Do what you want, but you're explaining him to the Captain."

The small man laughed happily, pulling a pair of hand cuffs out of his back pocket and advancing on Ianto. "You're coming with us, cutie."

Still in shock from Zai's sudden death, Ianto didn't dare make a move as the man strapped the cuffs around his wrists. He let himself be led out of the room and into the Hub's main control room where three other men, dressed much the same, were waiting for them.

"The rest of the team has been disposed of," a well built man reported to Ianto's dismay.

"Good," replied the tall man. "We're bringing this one with us at the request of Snare."

The others nodded silently, ready for further orders from the man who seemed to be their team leader. They did, however, cast curious, and in some cases lustful, looks in Ianto's direction that made him shudder and jar his wrists painfully against the cuffs.

"Right, we're leaving. Grab your masks and head back to the ship," the tall man instructed, passing Zai to two of the men before attaching a small, see-through disc over his mouth.

It seemed to stay in place without any support and Ianto couldn't even imagine how it would protect him from the harsh atmosphere on the Earth's surface. An identical mask was placed over Ianto's mouth by the man named Snare, who spent a little too long touching Ianto's face in the process.

Once everyone was wearing one of the masks, they rose on the lift in the centre of the Hub that took them straight up the outside world and into the howling wind of a fierce storm. Sand whipped into Ianto's face, blinding him thoroughly while the men used the red scarves around their necks to shield their faces. Pushed forward by Snare, he had no idea where he was going until his feet hit something hard and metal. He was led up a slanted walkway into what he could tell was a chamber by the tremendous, echoing sound of the wind bouncing of the walls. Then, everything went quiet.

Carefully, Ianto opened his eyes that were still blurred from the sand and could just make out the inside of a massive ship. The door that they'd entered through had closed, but sand and dirt was strewn across the floor. Before Ianto could even move or summon any thoughts on how to escape, the shadowy form of a man appeared in front of him.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

"A new slave," Ianto heard Snare reply from somewhere behind him. "Or maybe a butler like those pompous aristocrats have. He certainly has the suit for it."

Ianto could practically hear the lust in Snare's voice and, as he looked down at his dirt smeared and storm beaten suit, he regretted keeping the suit he died in, even if he did look damn good in it.

The faceless man laughed; a deep, reverberating noise that seemed to carry on even when he'd stopped. It sounded almost animalistic like the growl of a bear and Ianto immediately shrank away from him.

"Very well, Snare. You can have your pretty butler. Put him in the holding cell until we have a need for him. He'd better be a decent slave because if I hear he's causing any trouble his death will be quick. Understood?"

"Of course, Captain Locke," Snare replied, grabbing Ianto by his tie and dragging him away from the rest of the men, who were dealing with Zai's body, down a long tunnel.

With his eyes still blurred and out of focus, Ianto couldn't tell exactly where Snare was taking him, but it seemed to be deep inside the giant ship. They'd been walking for several minutes before Snare suddenly removed the hand cuffs and roughly flung Ianto onto a cold, metal floor.

"Get some sleep, sweet heart," he ordered cruelly. "You'll need it. If you're lucky, I might come back later and get you settled in."

There was the bang of a heavy door being closed, the sound of Snare's laughter slowly getting further and further away, and then all Ianto could hear was the gentle hum of engines all around him. Rubbing his eyes, he silently tried to convince himself that the tears running down his face were from the sand. He crawled into a tight ball, fighting off the feelings of misery, anger and fear that were swirling round his head, and slowly drifted into a fitful, nightmarish sleep.

* * *

*Phew!* Chapter one, complete. I'm not sure how long it'll be before chapter two is done, but as it's raining rather a lot where I am I'll probably get started on it pretty soon due to sheer boredom. Hopefully, it'll be up by the end of the week. We'll see.

Also, for those who are interested, the title of this chapter was inspired by the song I was listening to at the time, La Roux's As If By Magic. It's my new favourite album and I lovingly recommend it to anyone who enjoys 80s style music.

Alrighty then. Read and review please even if you thought it was utter pants.


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